College Station, Tex. ? Texas A&M’s two-game winning streak has coincided with the early stages of a changing offensive philosophy.

With season-ending injuries to three receivers, coach Dennis Franchione has turned to a grinding running game that has worked better than he expected.

Two weeks ago, 5-foot-11, 265-pound freshman Jorvorskie Lane rushed for 139 yards and three touchdowns in the Aggies’ 62-23 victory over Oklahoma State. He had 98 yards and two TDs in last week’s 30-28 victory at Kansas State.

Lane’s bruising, straight-ahead style has opened the outside for fleet-footed quarterback Reggie McNeal, who ran for 150 yards against the Cowboys and 119 yards last week, his best two rushing totals of the season.

After averaging 37 carries in its first five games, A&M had 55 rushes against the Cowboys and 56 last week.

It’s all good to Franchione, who always has preferred a powerful ground game to a big-play aerial offense.

“If I could have my druthers, I would like to hand it off and maul somebody,” he said.

The Aggies (5-2, 3-1 Big 12 Conference) will face the toughest test since tweaking the offense when they play host to Iowa State (4-3, 1-3) today. The Cyclones rank 20th in the nation in rushing defense.

“We’re still going to have to win some battles against those highly ranked rushing teams, and Iowa State is one of those teams,” Franchione said. “They’re a difficult team to run the football against. I’m concerned about that with them.”

Still, that’s no reason to go back to the air attack. Receivers Keith Dickerson, L’Tydrick Riley and Earvin Taylor have been lost to knee injuries, and McNeal has struggled to find a rhythm with their replacements.

“I’m missing ’em,” McNeal said. “I’m not losing focus, I’m not losing confidence in my receivers, and I’m not losing confidence in me. We’ve just got to continue to work harder. It doesn’t happen overnight. We’re making the best out of the situation.”

Iowa State is coming off a 37-10 victory over Oklahoma State last week.

“You like to say, ‘OK, they’re coming to Kyle Field, hopefully home-field advantage is going to be something for us,”‘ Franchione said. “They’ve gone on the road and played pretty solid football. They could very easily be 7-0.”

Iowa State coach Dan McCarney expects running back Stevie Hicks to play for the first time since the Cyclones’ 28-21 win over Army on Sept. 23. Hicks rushed for 118 yards in Iowa State’s 23-3 win over Iowa on Sept. 10.